September 11, 2007: Kanye West Celebrates His ‘Graduation’

Hip-Hop Head story: I scheduled my GRE for September 11th, 2007, so that I could celebrate finishing the test (yay! triple digits!) by buying Kanye West’s Graduation album. This achieved a twofold goal of buying the year’s most-anticipated album and not buying 50 Cent’s dueling, sub-par album, effectively casting my vote in the year’s biggest rap battle.

When Graduation dropped its impact was straightforward: Kanye obliterated and effectively helped to stonewall 50 Cent’s meteoric rise while producing what was arguably his third straight classic. Graduation was great in 2007, but if you listen to it while taking into account Kanye’s subsequent musical and career moves, the project is a cohesive and deliberate farewell letter to the everyman backpacker Kanye. Even the album cover itself was a subliminal message about the Kanye we’d see from 2007 on. Yes, Graduation is a great album. But listening to it in retrospect only makes it better.

DMX’s original idea for his music was to make his first three albums a trilogy, as apparent by the interwoven story of the recurring character Damien. Kanye West ingrained a similar narrative style that pervaded his first three releases. College Dropout and Late Registration were both about Kanye Everyman – the guy with the backpack, single mom and dead-end jobs. He even wore Jordans and Polos like the rest of us. While the initial thought was that the concept of Graduation would just signal the end of the school themes and faux-Bernie Mac voice. But what we got was a bow on top of a three-album story.

The Artwork

Kanye the rapper was epitomized by a bear on the artwork for his first three albums. On the Graduation cover designed by Takashi Murakami, the bear is literally shot out of a cannon into another stratosphere in much the same way Kanye’s career started heading to unforeseen heights. The sign was there as soon as we picked up a copy. Yeezy was on his way out.

Samples

Then, there were the samples. While previous singles showcased samples from the likes of Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross and Ray Charles, Kanye launched his Graduation campaign with a chopped up Daft Punk sample. Possibly his most obscure, creative use of a sample came with the Can sample used on “Drunk and Hot Girls.” This was all a precursor to the darker, gothic sound and deeper crate-digging we found on subsequent albums.

The Rapping

Graduation stands out from the rest of Kanye’s catalogue for the fact it’s his most insulated rap album. While College Dropout featured every friend Kanye’s ever had, Late Registration included a whole opera and My Beautiful Dark And Twisted Fantasy was recorded in a think tank in Hawaii, Graduation was Kanye’s baby that he saw through with minimal help. “Barry Bonds” featured a guest verse from Lil Wayne (a surprisingly subpar guest verse from Weezy especially considering the hot streak he was on at the time), some singing from Mos Def and Dwele and that’s it.

West used Graduation to define himself as more than just a producer that raps well. Just listen to the way “Big Brother” was recorded. Notice the way he goes from the second verse right into the hook. Kanye sounds like he recorded it all in one take, not even punching in the verses. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.

Kanye foreshadows his jump into rap’s stratosphere from the very first song – “scared of the future while I hop in the DeLorean” with “Good Morning.” He even foreshadows “Big Brother” with a Jay-Z sample that called for the next rap “hustler” to step up. What follows is an album that combined all of the best qualities Kanye exhibited with his previous works and set the stage for a more experimental West to take center stage. While many saw 808’s and Heartbreaks as a sharp left turn, Kanye had always worked with harmonies and took it further with “I Wonder” and “Drunk and Hot Girls” that featured singing and very little traditional rapping.

Graduation isn’t just a dope (the dopest?) Kanye album. It’s a musical farewell to the Kanye west that spoke for us. His first three albums played within and pushed the boundaries of traditional Hip-Hop by building on the structures already in place. After Graduation, Kanye totally recreated his sound with each subsequent album. The Polo Yeezy was a great opening chapter for Kanye West the musician. But with Graduation, Kanye closed that chapter emphatically in brilliant fashion.

agreed. i definitely never thought of this album in this context. tss and david did a great job here. who dave could write well about shit NOT wrestling related? i kid i kid.
agreed. i definitely never thought of this album in this context. tss and david did a great job here. who dave could write well about shit NOT wrestling related? i kid i kid.

Agreed, in that I had never thought of this album this way…same goes for the cover art. Dave, thanks for pointing these important details out through this excellent reflective piece. Funny thing is….i was listening to this album earlier this week and loving it – especially “I Wonder” and “Everything I Am,” which are damn masterpieces.

HOWEVER, I was listening to College Dropout for a like a week straight directly before this recent listen to Grad…..and it’s still superior (even with the scratches on my cd). There’s just so much damn heart in that whole project, it’s just hard to top. That said though, there’s a lot of heart in every album he’s released – a lot – but College Dropout’s easiest for me to relate to – which is probably why I prefer it over anything he’s done.

I could swear I was saying this shit to somebody the other day. David D, you are a fantastic writer and thinker, sir. Love this piece.

And yes. Graduation was the best Kanye album. It literally only had one “bad” song (arguably), and I just swapped out “Drunk and Hot Girls” with “Bittersweet” on my copy (which immensely improves the sequencing and storytelling throughout the album – try it out), and I can let it ride from beginning to end every time.

I miss this Kanye. because he had one foot on the next level, but was still down-to-earth and relatable. New Ye just feels too weird for me. If I had a DeLorean I may go back and prevent the dude’s whole Europe phase from taking place.

That’s why I say that, from a musical standpoint Graduation is the best, and my personal favorite.

It had a much broader appeal (not a bad thing) and a universality that let it be a lot of things to a lot of people and ride straight through so well. It tells it’s story more effectively and cohesively than LR to me.

Not to mention, I’m a fan of short albums. 17 tracks plus interludes is just a bit much.

MBDTF was a spectacle. All flashing lights, special effects & chest bumping. No where near as engaging as his first 3 LP’s although it’s still a Kanye West album so the artistry in putting it all together is apparent

MBDTF was a spectacle. All flashing lights, special effects & chest bumping. No where near as engaging as his first 3 LP’s…
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It wasn’t his most lyrically engaging in subject matter, true. But sonically, it’s far superior to the first three albums.

also never thought of it this way, great write up! College Dropout will always be my favorite but that’s mostly due to my situation when it dropped…and how I could relate to it. I feel like that’s how most peoples favorite albums are chosen.

yeah I never thought of it in this context either, great article. Late Registration was my favorite of his. The only thing is his lyrics were purposefully more basic on this, as he admitted. Which is great for some people but word nerds like me noticed.

Dropout was my fav cuz its one of those albums that defines a generation the other albums were great but lacked that deepness to touch me.Thesame way Iconnect more RD than BP&BA for jay.Its all about where u r in life with how u listen and appreciate music

I was always puzzled as to why the European release of Graduation ended with a song called Good Night (Feat. Mos Def) that ended the album instead of Big Brother. I thought it would’ve doper for everyone to start the album with Good Morning and end it Good Night.

Goes to show how great Kanye’s been that this is only his third or fourth best album (It’s third for me), hell I’ve heard people argue it’s his worst album. If he’d taken off Drunk and Hot Girls, there wouldn’t be a single track I didn’t like.

I think we were all amped about this album when Yeezy started kicking flows on Def Poetry. I was wondering what would happen with Bittersweet since it was recorded back during the LR days.

But Graduation, man, there’s at least a story behind every Kanye album for me. ’07 was undergrad and when I realized “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” hit harder in the clubs in Houston than “I Get Money”, I knew things were serious.

I could fill a book with my thoughts towards ‘Ye. Graduation was probably his most significant album for me, at least in terms of when it came out and how I digested it. I blasted Dropout on repeat, and to this day know it front to back. Registration took me much longer to get into to, but I honestly think it’s my favorite from his catalog.

But Graduation? That was one of those “soundtrack to my life” albums. It came out during my senior year of high school, and I digested every single track in such an involved way.

That being said, I don’t come back to it as often as I thought I would. If I’m ranking his projects, I go:

1. Late Registration
2. Dropout
3. Graduation
4. MBDTF
5. 808s.

Keep in mind, none of those projects deserve lower than 3.5 cigs in my book, and minus 808s, all are 4+. Which is pretty much why I’ll roll my eyes whenever people bash dude for his persona. I just don’t care lol

Sorry if that was TL;DR, by the way. That was really the Cliff Note version of what I wanted to say.

I completely agree with where you’re coming from. Late Registration probably had the least impact for me, but it’s definitely one of his best albums. Graduation blew me away completely when I first heard it, but it’s definitely my least favorite of his rap albums. MBDTF blew me away in the same fashion, but I’ll have to let it digest longer still. So far I feel the same way about it as I did when I first heard it.

Compared to everyone else, I was young as hell when I caught on to Kanye. I wanna say 13 or 14, when I was listening to everything my brother listened to. His girl at the time put me on to College Dropout and it’s been my favorite Ye album ever since. That album was the first rap joint i truly latched on to. #CoolStoryWill

Swear I’m not trolling when I say this, but I don’t think that Dropout really can fuck with his non-808s work.

MBDTF is prolly Kanye’s masterpiece but Graduation is my favorite, the one where if I put one song on I pretty much listen to the whole thing front to back. Even “Drunk and Hot Girls” has Mos’ awesome hook and the hilarious “lalalalala that’s how the FUCK you sound” bit.

I am trying it now with the suggestion of “Bittersweet Poetry” in place of “Drunk” and putting the Japan edition version of “Good Night” on at the end (I only ever had the incomplete version that was on the Graduate mixtape- incredible tape, btw- and I’ve always loved that version, how can you hear that and say Mos can’t sing?)

If I had to rank them…

1) Graduation (4.5 cigs)
2) MBDTF (4.5 cigs personally, I could understand anyone rating it 5 though)
3) Late Orchestration (4 or 4.5)
4) Late Registration (4, just due to being too damn long and “We Major” being kind of a drag compared to my- and everyone’s- expectations for it)
5) Dropout (3.5- if you pruned the skits and a few of the smirky deadweight comedy tracks it could be 4 or 4.5 though)
6) 808s (3, because it’s not for me even if I can appreciate it and “Welcome to Heartbreak” and “Amazing” got a lot of burn from me. And “Love Lockdown” is probably the worst thing he’s ever put out.

Seriously, people should revisit that Graduate mixtape. Mick Boogie is a genius. The final third drags a little with too many guests but it’s a lot of fun and is incredibly well put together with cool rarities and anything (save “Bittersweet”) non-album solo Kanye was doing at the time.

I always thought that if Kanye replaced “Drunk and Hot Girls” with “Good Night” or “Bittersweet” then he would’ve won that Grammy for Best Album….and not Herbie Hancock. No shots to Herbie Hancock though.

I think that Kanye is the perfect example of an artist that each album has a very specifically different sound from one another. So I can definitely see why there are so many differences of what’s his best.

College Dropout is the root. That’s just straight hip hop Kanye right there.
Late Registration is the most cinematic of all his albums. Very grand
Graduation is, in Ye’s words, stadium music. Big sounds, big hooks, big attitude
808’s is pure pain. No frills, no shine. Just emotions he was dealing with at the time.
MBDTF is his most ambitious album, as he took elements from every other album and combined them together. Also, a pretty dark, angry album.

Unlike most artists, I truly feel like Kanye’s albums are connected and therefore one would not exist without the other. Yes, 808’s gets a lot of flack (I like it personally) imagine MBDTF without Runaway, Gorgeous, Lost In The World, or Blame Game, records I think we can attribute a great deal to Ye’s experimentation during 808’s period. Plus, 808’s made a nice lane for artists like Cudi and Drake, as well as others. Like Freeman said in The Wire “all of the pieces matter.”